Atari's court case over payment to Chris Sawyer, creator of the RollerCoaster Tycoon series, is to go to the UK's highest court — the House of Lords.

Atari's court case over payment to Chris Sawyer, creator of
the RollerCoaster Tycoon series, is to go to the UK's High
Court.

Although the case currently has no prospect of success under
UK law, the law itself may have changed by the time the case
is heard.

"This is one of those unusual cases in which a claim which
the court considers has no real prospect of success (as the
law stands) should, nevertheless, be permitted to go trial,"
said judge Lord Justice Chadwick.

Sawyer is claiming
that Atari has breached the terms of a licensing agreement by
not allowing auditors access to accounts from 1999 to 2001,
during which he claims he is owed US $4.8 million.

Atari has since counter-claimed that Sawyer has broken an
agreement by letting developer Frontier create a demo based
on the RollerCoaster Tycoon franchise, and therefore induced
Frontier to breach its contractual obligations to Atari.

The law of inducement is the sticking point that has forced
similar cases to be forwarded to the House of Lords, and it
will now wait pending two other appeals.

If the House of Lords decides to leave the precedents set in
the two other cases, Chadwick expects Atari will drop its
case of inducement to breach of contract.

"If those judgements uphold the view of the law taken by this
Court, then it may be expected that Atari will recognise that
its claim in respect of inducement to breach of contract must
fail, and the claim will be abandoned," he said.

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